Indexing apparatus for sewing machines



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Y) Mm E I .H R N U m 2 E M O w M D D R W L T C I T A O M C I 2 6 O 2 W T W V T T|||| O W S H X Wm L A I ll 00 m m l E III lw Dlq -mhnE C T I tum S .L w w F Ni U M JNR W N N m O O S n w MACH! E United States Patent 3,349,732 INDEXENG APPARATUS FOR SEWING MACHINES Guido Perrella, Montreal, Quebec, and Frank Picker, St. Bruno, Quebec, Canada, assignors to Dynaeast LttL, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Filed July 13, 1964, Ser. No. 382,048 Claims priority, application Canada, Mar. 31, 1964, 899,130 19 Claims. (Cl. 112-65) This invention relates to an indexing apparatus for sewing machines and more specifically, to an automatic indexing apparatus adapted for use in combination with buttonhole sewing machines to provide the latter with means for sequentially sewing a plurality of spaced buttonholes in a workpiece such as shirts, dresses and the like.

Indexing devices or attachments for buttonhole sewing machines are known, US. Patent No. 2,465,232 of Mar. 22, 1949, to I ones et al. being one example of such prior devices. However, known devices of the prior art have not altogether been successful and, as a result, have not enjoyed wide acceptance in the garment trade.

One disadvantage of prior indexing attachments is that, although they fed a workpiece to a sewing machine in sequential steps, they did not complete a full reciprocating cycle, i.e., a return stroke to a start position after a series of buttonhole sewing operations. Such attachments usually comprise a slidable carrier or work table having means adapted to hold a garment thereon and to move the latter under the sewing mechanism of the machine, automatically stopping at each predetermined 'buttonhole location. At the completion of the last buttonhole, such a carrier has had to be manually returned to its start position.

A further disadvantage of prior indexing devices is that they have been designed mainly for attachment to and for operation with machines for sewing lateral buttonholes in workpieces, i.e., with the longitudinal axis of the buttonhole normal to the vertical axis of the lapels or breast edges of suit jackets etc. In such cases, the workpiece or garment was moved to the sewing mechanism in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the sewing machine. In most cases, the needle of the mechanism sewed in an aligned path with the said longitudinal axis 'whereby the buttonholes were sewn into the. garment normal to the edge thereof. Obviously, therefore, the above described prior attachments are not readily adaptable for the sequential sewing of aligned vertical buttonholes in garments such as shirts, dress fronts, raincoats and the like where longitudinal axes of buttonholes are parallel with the vertical axis of the garment. The main reason being, of course, that such garments must be fed in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the path to be traversed by the sewing mechanism of the machine and in order, therefore, for prior indexing devices to be applicable for aligned sewing, they necessarily would have to operate their reciprocal work tables directly toward and away from the longitudinal axis of the sewing machine. It will be evident from a perusal of the prior art that such an application would not be possible.

The abovementioned patent to Jones et al. somewhat overcomes the problem of sewing aligned buttonholes, but this patent recites the sewing of such buttonholes in a tape that may be applied to a shirt front at a later stage and the tape easily can be fed away from the region of the sewing machine after the buttonholes are sewn.

A still further disadvantage of known indexing attachments is that they usually have been placed directly in front of their associated sewing machines whereby periodic routine maintenance on the machine has been extremely diflicult to carry out. Moreover, the prior attachments usually were so integrally interconnected mechanreally with their associated machines that the latter had to be rendered inoperative if the attachment sulfered a mechanical breakdown. This disadvantage has been obviated to a certain extent by the indexing attachment disclosed in our copending US. patent application Ser. No. 328,312 filed on Dec. 5, 1963, now Patent No. 3,322,083.

The object of the present invention therefore, is to provide automatic indexing apparatus for buttonhole sewmg machines, which apparatus is designed to overcome the above disadvantages of the devices of the prior art. Moreover, the device of the present invention is not an attachment insofar as this term is accepted in relation to the prior art in that the present device is disposed remote from its associated sewing machine and is not mechanically connected thereto. Moreover, it will be appreciated from the description of the present invention, that the latter in no way interferes with manual or independent operation of its associated machine.

The problem of sewing aligned buttonholes in workpieces such as shirts has now been overcome with the introduction of a new type of sewing machine wherein the needle and sewing mechanism thereof are offset from the body of the machine to a sufficient degree that a workpiece may be fed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the machine and therefore in alignment with the like axis of the needle. For the purpose of illustration, and by way of example it is to such a machine that the apparatus of the present invention is applied.

According to its broadest aspect, the present invention relates to the combination with the sewing mechamsm of a buttonholing machine, of an indexing apparatus to provide said sewing mechanism with means automatically to effect a plurality of spaced, sequential buttonhole sew ng operations to a workpiece; said] apparatus comprising a frame having a carriage slidably mounted therealong; drive means to impart reciprocal movement to said carriage along said frame; indexing means to control said drive means and sequentially to stop said carriage during movement thereof at a plunality of selected locations on said frame; and a pair of guide arms on said carriage extending outwardly from said frame and being provided with means for clamping a workpiece therebetween; said arms and clamping means terminating adjacent opposite sides of said sewing mechanism and being adapted to transmit movement of said carriage to said workpiece relative to said sewing mechanism and to transmit movement of said sewing mechanism and said workpiece to said carriage.

The invention is illustrated, by way of example, in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention operatively mounted adjacent a buttonhole sewing machine;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the apparatus showing the integers of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a plan view similar to FIG. 3 showing the integers of the device at a final buttonholing position;

FIG. 5 is broken down into several enlarged plan views of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is similarly broken sectional views in elevation taken along line 6'6 of FIG. 5;

'FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 77 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of the tensioning arm and its associated integers;

FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 are fragmentary sectional views, taken along the line 9-9 of FIG. 5B, and show the operation of the integers illustrated in FIG. 8; 

1. IN COMBINATION WITH THE SEWING MEACHANISM OF A BUTTONHOLING MACHINE, AN INDEXING APPARATUS TO PROVIDE SAID MECHANISM WITH MEANS AUTOMATICALLY TO EFFECT A PLURALITY OF SPACED, SQUENTIAL BUTTONHOLE SEWING OPERATIONS TO A WORKPIECE; SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING A FRAME HAVING A CARRIAGE SLIDABLY MOUNTED THEREIN, SAID CARRIAGE INCLUDING FIRST AND SECOND ELEMENTS, ROLLERS ON SAID ELEMENTS FOR RECIPROCAL MOVEMENT OF SAID CARRIAGE IN SAID FRAME; CONNECTING MEMBERS SECURING TOGETHER SAID FIRST AND SECOND ELEMENTS, DRIVE MEANS TO IMPART SAID RECIPROCAL MOVEMENT TO SAID CARRIAGE; INDEXING MEANS TO CONTROL SAID DRIVE MEANS AND SEQUENTIALLY STOP SAID CARRIAGE DURING SAID MOVEMENT AT A PLURALITY OF SELECTED LOCATIONS IN SAID FRAME AND THEN DISCONNECT SAID CARRIAGE FROMS SAID DRIVE MEANS; AND A PAIR OF GUIDE ARMS HAVING MEANS FOR CLAMPING A WORKPIECE UNDER TENSION THEREBETWEEN AT OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE WORKPIECE TO MORE POSITIVELY GRIP AND CONTROL 